1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tire sealant liquid container, and more specifically to a tire sealant liquid container having a simple structure and preventing a tire sealant liquid from remaining in a container body or from flowing back.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, what is called a puncture repair kit has been widely used. When a pneumatic tire (hereinafter, simply referred to as “tire”) is punctured, the puncture repair kit is used to inject a tire sealant liquid into the punctured tire so that the tire sealant liquid can flow in a hole caused by the puncture. Then, with the puncture repair kit, the inner pressure of the punctured tire is increased up to a predetermined regulation value. Use of such a puncture repair kit eliminates the need of loading a vehicle with a spare tire, and thus has an advantage in resource saving and vehicle weight reduction as well as an advantage of allowing a space provided for loading a spare tire to be effectively used for another purpose.
FIGS. 7 and 8 each show a conventional puncture repair kit. As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, each of these puncture repair kits includes: a pressure-resistant container (container body 2) accommodating a tire sealant liquid 7; an air inlet 3; and a tire sealant liquid outlet 4. An air supply hose 5 and a tire sealant liquid injection hose 6 are connected to the air inlet 3 and the tire sealant liquid outlet 4, respectively. Compressed air outputted by a compressor C passes through the air supply hose 5, and then enters the container body 2 through the air inlet 3. As a result, the compressed air pushes out the tire sealant liquid 7 accommodated in the container body 2 through the tire sealant liquid outlet 4. Then, the tire sealant liquid 7 passes through the tire sealant liquid injection hose 6, and is then introduced in a tire T.
Generally, puncture repair kits as described above are categorized into two types based on shapes during use: an upright type and an inverted type. As shown in FIG. 7, in a puncture repair kit of the upright type, the air inlet 3 and the tire sealant liquid outlet 4 are formed on the upper side of the container body 2, which is described in Japanese patent application Kokai publication No. Hei 9-118779, for example. Meanwhile, as shown in FIG. 8, in a puncture repair kit of the inverted type, the air inlet 3 and the tire sealant liquid outlet 4 are formed on the lower side of the container body 2, which is described in Japanese patent application Kokai publication No. 2000-108215, for example.
However, the inverted type has a risk that connecting an air supply hose to the lower side of a container body might allow a tire sealant liquid to flow back through the hose upon shutdown of a compressor. This might further lead to a problem that, after flowing back, the tire sealant liquid enters the compressor, which causes breakdown of the compressor to disable the operation thereof.
On the other hand, the upright type has a problem of being incapable of injecting all the tire sealant liquid accommodated in a container body, and thus has a problem of allowing the tire sealant liquid to remain in a bottom portion of the container body. In particular, when the container body is inclined during use, the upright type cannot inject a required amount of the tire sealant liquid, which leads to insufficient puncture repair.